By Kimberly Dunbar

Fewer things can make a movie sequence cooler than a swordfight. But the actual sport and art of fencing is harder than it appears on the big screen.

“Fencing is a huge mind game, a sort of physical chess,” said Joseph Szafarowicz, WPI junior and fencing club president. “You have to defeat your opponent physically as well as mentally.”

Like many of his fellow students, Szafarowicz was drawn to the sport because it afforded him opportunities to play with swords. “I wanted to do some manner of sport at school and I was fascinated by the mystique surrounding fencing,” he said. “Plus it would give me a chance to casually stab people.”

Szafarowicz, a 21-year-old Charlton native who played high school football and has a black belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate, began fencing three years ago. He called the learning process “extremely challenging, but rewarding,” and credited coach Dr. David Brown for his improvement.

Brown, who has been advising the club since joining WPI as a professor in 1985, said the quality of the club and its membership have increased in recent years. According to Brown, the fencing club is one of WPI’s largest, with about 40 people learning each year. Students can even receive PE credit for attending the club in the fall term, and about half hang around for a second.

“By the end of the seven-week term they get the hang of it and do a little fencing,” Brown said.

According to Szafarowicz, the first few months are the hardest. “Trying to learn the basics is a grind and you feel as though you aren’t learning to be a good fencer very fast,” he said. “But when you reach that one point … where you just react to something and make an amazing hit, you know that all that training was worth it.”

As to why the club has gotten popular, Brown is unsure. “People come and think they’re going to swing from chandeliers with rapiers and daggers,” he explained. “But some are just searching for their little corner of the sports world.”

It appears that Szafarowicz has found his. “I came for the swordplay and left with new friends, experiences, and the expertise on how to skewer someone,” he said. (Ed. note: you can’t actually harm someone; Brown said the weapons are not sharp.)

For more information on WPI’s Fencing Club, visit users.wpi.edu/~fencing/#club.

Non-WPI students interested in the sport can check out Worcester Fencing Club at www.worcesterfencing.com.